1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a wide angle lens and an imaging apparatus, and more specifically to a wide angle lens that can be suitably used for digital cameras and the like, and an imaging apparatus equipped with the wide angle lens.
2. Background Art
Heretofore, retrofocus type lens systems have been frequently used in wide angle lenses for use with single lens reflex cameras, as it is necessary to secure a sufficient back focus. The retrofocus type lens system includes a negative lens group and a positive lens group disposed in order from the object side to form an asymmetrical configuration with respect to the stop, and has generally a long back focus. In the meantime, a so-called mirror-less camera having no mirror between the imaging lens and the image plane has recently becoming popular due to its advantages of compactness and light weight, and along with this, development of lens systems for such small cameras has been in progress. Wide angle lenses for mirror-less cameras do not require a long back focus but an angle of a light ray incident on the image plane needs to be maintained relatively small and, therefore, a negative-leading lens type is often used. The negative-leading lens systems already known may include those described, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-219610 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2011-209377.